Reading time – 73 seconds . . . In his stunning article in the June, 2014 The Atlantic exploring the issue of reparations for our American treatment of slaves and the effects on their descendents, Ta-Nehisi Coates quotes a Chicago Tribune editorial from 1891 that addresses this same issue: “They have been taught to labor…. [read more]
Reading time – 19 seconds . . . Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) has sponsored a bill to amend the Constitution and has 37 co-sponsors. His bill will overturn corporate rights and begin to get democracy killing big money out of our politics and start us on the road to solving the complex problems that are… [read more]
Reading time – 29 seconds . . . The Koch brothers and other big bucks boys sponsored a pension reform seminar and invited lots of judges to attend. It was all about how we will “reform” our pension system for public workers, given the enormous “unfunded liability” held by most states. What that means is that… [read more]
Reading time – 77 seconds . . . In a most accessible essay entitled The Umwelt, David Eagleman gives perspective to a 1909 concept of Jakob von Uexkull explaining the varied perceptions different animals have to their environmental signals. Snakes, for example, are practically blind to what humans see, but they have amazing vision in… [read more]
Reading time – 54 seconds . . . For decades we have had a most efficient, self-reinforcing cycle in our politics of incrementally allowing more and more money into our political infrastructure. As we did that, the Big Money Interests gained incrementally more influence over our laws, our bureaucracy and our courts to drive ever-larger… [read more]
Just back from presenting a Money, Politics & Democracy program in downstate Illinois and the same thing became obvious once again. My program is always well received, yet most of the people who turn out for events like mine are already believers. And while their attending gives me the opportunity to provide motivation for their… [read more]
Editorial note: Before anyone goes hyperbolic, imagining that this is a comparison of anyone today to the Nazis, get that it isn’t. The issue is propaganda, and you need to be clear about what that means to you. ——————————- I recently visited the Field Museum in Chicago to see the exhibit, “State of Deception: The… [read more]
Caution: Contains snark! Children, as well as adults who act like children, should proceed with caution. ——————————- When Wayne LaPierre became executive vice-president of the NRA he shed his bookish ways and made himself into the out-front, out-there, inflammatory voice of the gun manufacturers’ lobby. His misleading assertions and fabrications of “facts” and his only… [read more]
I didn’t make a new year’s resolution. Not this year, nor any other year, with the exception of several years when I was young, heard about the practice and went along because that’s what I thought everyone did. Within hours of making each one, though, I could no longer identify what the resolution had been. … [read more]
Mark R. Godburn, an antiquarian bookseller in North Canaan, CT, wrote a letter to the editor that was published in the December 8, 2013 New York Times, along with responses from several readers. Mr. Godburn cautions us that, “Relying on one source, or even on several sources with the same bias, will leave you with… [read more]
